You're probably best waiting for Dragon Age then, it'll hit PCs soon then 360/PS3 by the end of next year. It's worth breaking out of what you think you'll like in case you find something that's surprisingly great.

Also, unless you find you hate JRPGs period you'll probably want to grab a PS2. Lots of RPGs accessible and most won't be that pricey.

Dragon Quest IV (and the series in general) is very simple, sort of bare-bones in its mechanics. No, you don't have any idea how much more bashing the enemy will take. But if you want, some walkthroughs have fairly accurate numbers on enemies. So, let's say you're stuck at a boss and you want to know what his HP is at the start of the battle, walkthroughs can help you out there.

As for random encounters, Torneko learns early on a "decrease random encounter rate" skill for the field. He also learns an "increase random encounter rate" skill later in the game, but obviously you'd only use that if you wanted to level grind. :)

You will almost definitely enjoy Chrono Trigger. If you're happy with a JRPG as long as it still has a medieval fantasy setting, one recent release that might be worth checking out is Eternal Poison. It's a turn-based Strategy RPG (not sure if that's of any interest to you or not); but I think it's something you could definitely enjoy. Otherwise, Eusis' suggestion of waiting for Dragon Age pretty much nails it.

You should definitely give the strategy RPG titles a try. Both Mega Drive (Genesis) Shining Force titles are available on the virtual console, and well worth the asking price!

And can't you play Gamecube disks on the Wii? Hunt down Tales of Symphonia. There's not a lot more to say other than that! I would normally suggest Skies of Arcadia Legends, too, but if random battles is what's bugging you, Skies has a ridiculously high encounter rate. Either Fire Emblem on the Wii, GC or GBA might be interesting, if you decide s-RPGs are for you, but they are hard as nails!

PC-wise, pick up the two Knights of the Old Republic titles, or if you fancy KotoR minus Star Wars, try Jade Empire or Mass Effect. And if you are seriously thinking about getting into Wow, spending some quality time with Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos & Frozen Throne wouldn't be a bad idea. They've got enough RPG in them to keep me happy, and they're top-notch RTS games to boot.

Dragon Quest IV (and the series in general) is very simple, sort of bare-bones in its mechanics. No, you don't have any idea how much more bashing the enemy will take. But if you want, some walkthroughs have fairly accurate numbers on enemies. So, let's say you're stuck at a boss and you want to know what his HP is at the start of the battle, walkthroughs can help you out there.

As for random encounters, Torneko learns early on a "decrease random encounter rate" skill for the field. He also learns an "increase random encounter rate" skill later in the game, but obviously you'd only use that if you wanted to level grind. :)

I will give Chrono Trigger a go and I am enjoying Dragon Quest IV; it's been a while since I played this sort of rpg. I have played Zelda Twilight Princess and similer games but have not really thought of them as rpg.

I had not come across the term 'level grind' before. Anyway while playing Dragon Quest IV Chapter 2 yesterday, I was unable to advance past the second town, even though I'd spent all my money on extra items I was not able to defeat the monsters in the cave. So I had a look at a walkthrough and it suggested that ALENA & co. should be on level 8. Thats when I discovered what level grinding was. So I spend the next 30 minutes wandering around killing anything I could just to get to level 8 and go back into the cave for another go.

I have got used to the ramdom battles now, up to a point, but I'm not sure about having to level grind just to advance.

Does this apply to all rpg's or are there some where you can you level up without battles or are there rpg's where you don't have to level up at all?

Strategy RPGs play more like games of Chess. They tend to play rather slowly and require patience. I'm not the biggest fan of SRPGs, but some I like.

Some RPGs, regardless of their country of origin, require mindless grinding. I hate that. That's one reason I loved The World Ends With You so much. Levelling up is required, but the game lets you change multiple aspects of difficulty on the fly so you don't have to grind much. A few battles with hard enemies will level you up, then you can switch to easy for the boss battles. That feature alone is worth it. Battles are not random and you can easily pick and choose your battles.

A game like Planescape: Torment is cool because you gain EXP for talking your way out of situations. It's possible to beat that game with minimal fighting.

I know you said Hotel Dusk wasn't your kind of game, but Japanese visual novels like Ever17 are the only story-centric games I can think of that don't have battles, levelling up, or logic puzzles. Just Choose Your Own Adventure style "play."

If the press demo I played is any indication, the upcoming Eternal Eden by Blossomsoft shouldn't require any grinding at all. Battles are not random, are not overly numerous, and enemies do not respawn, so killing every foe in the dungeon should leave you at the right level to kill the boss.

Or there's the Game Shark cheat device. Let technology do the level grinding for you. I did with some games where I felt the battle or character growth system wasn't very good.

EDIT: One of my favorite RPGs of all time that meets all the criteria is Remote Control. It was a fanmade RPG for the Playstation One RPG Maker and the reason I got a DexDrive. Story based, only a few plot-relevant battles, cool storyline, very creative/innovative, generally a killer 3 hour RPG I played at least twelve times over. I *think* it may be downloadable to PS3, but I'm not sure.

Actually, level grinding should rarely be necessary in DQIV. Just make sure to make full use of status ailment spells and debuffs and buffs, and fully explore dungeons. I only seriously ground a little at the end of the chapter for a better weapon and some healing herbs, then for the secret final boss.

I generally find most modern RPGs are good about not requiring a ridiculous grind. Sometimes it's just because they're really easy, but I think a lot of developers have acquired a better sense of balancing than during the earlier days.